因此，此論文的重點工作是，藉由調查中華民國在2000年以來，向友邦國家提供的經濟與技術援助，和此段時間內，友邦對於中華民國的國際地位所提出的政治支持，來察看中華民國外交政策『經濟外交』的實行成效。調查的範圍由大到小，從中華民國的友邦國家縮小到拉丁美洲的友邦國家，最後再將重心擺至中美洲邦交國。Latin America is one of the most important regions for the foreign affairs of Republic of China. So far, the ROC maintains diplomatic ties with merely 23 countries, and except the Holy See, those diplomatic countries are majorly located in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, especially in only one region, Latin America, there are 12 countries that have diplomatic ties with the ROC, and among them, 6 are in Central America.

Under the Economic Diplomacy, these countries maintain or extend diplomatic relations with the ROC, meanwhile, once diplomatic relation is extended, the ROC launches projects of foreign technical and financial assistance in countries which have or are going to extend their diplomatic ties with the ROC. In this case, it''s clear to see that the basic pattern of this foreign policy is: the assistance projects for development of the ROC in her diplomatic allies and the promise of these countries to hold firmly their diplomatic ties with the ROC and support her in the international community.

International Relations are composed of behaviours of countries. And the behaviour of countries occurs when foreign policy is made on the base of concern of national interest of each other. According to this, it''s natural to back to think about what the national interest is when talking about foreign policy. In the case of the Economic Diplomacy of the ROC, it can easily find out that the national interest which the ROC is searching for in establishing diplomatic ties with countries is, the legitimacy of the nation, while facing the “One- China Policy” and the majority of the world takes the People''s Republic of China as the only legitimate political entity of China; vice versa, countries which have or are willing and going to extend diplomatic ties with the ROC, tend to take advantage of her weak side of political position of the word and from there, look for national interest under this relationship. The majority of them expect that the ROC would help on the economic and social development of the countries with foreign assistance projects which are based on the strong economic power of the ROC.

Therefor, the main purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the efficiency of the foreign policy of the ROC, Economic Diplomacy after 2000, based on an investigation of foreign assistance projects that the ROC has already launched for those 22 diplomatic allies except the Holy See, and analyse the political supports which those diplomatic allies have extended to the ROC in international community for the maintenance of her political position. The investigation only evaluate ROC''s Economic Diplomacy in those 12 Latin American countries with whom she maintains diplomatic ties, and finally focus on countries in Central America.